PITTSBURGH — Over the summer, Channel 11 has covered incident after incident involving unruly “teen takeovers” in the City of Pittsburgh.
We wanted to know whether parents could face charges in connection with these situations.
“The parents should do way better. If your kid is Downtown at 12:30 a.m. with no money, taking over and doing all this, you failed as a parent personally,” a man in downtown Pittsburgh told Channel 11 today.
He has had enough of the takeovers after he experienced one firsthand last week.
“There was one literally at the Carrick pool. I was trying to dip my toes in, and I can’t even dip my toes in because there’s too many kids doing too much,” he said.
Days later, there was another one in East Liberty, where 150 teenagers gathered, and police say some of them had guns and shot off Roman candle fireworks.
The takeovers aren’t just a Pittsburgh problem — they’ve been happening all over the country. Some cities, like Detroit and Washington DC, have announced that parents will be charged or cited if their kids participate in the takeovers.
A spokesperson for the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office told Channel 11, there are two statutes that could be used in limited circumstances. But, she added it would be difficult to charge parents because prosecutors would have to prove the parents knew what the child intended to do.
Legal analyst Phil DiLucente explained what kind of evidence would be needed…
“Were they part of a text string that said ‘hey mom, I need you to drive me down to xyz because we’re going to do xyz, without question… accomplice liability kicks in and then they can be charged under the statute,” DiLucente said.
To him, a better option could adding more beds to the Shuman Center so that more teens face the consequences themselves and get the guidance they need.
“Those beds will facilitate the proper rehabilitation. Without that, we just have either a non-monetary type of bond or house arrest… but we all know house arrest can easily be violated. So those beds would be consistent with what the whole theory of the judicial system is for… rehabilitation,” he said.
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